Abraham's Boys: A Dracula Story

This movie is a fanfiction sequel of Dracula and therefore requires a solid basis of knowledge of the Dracula canon in order to "work" for its audience.

The characters themselves have their own steady convictions they aren't giving up any time soon: the doubts and questions must live in the viewer instead. The audience knows what happened with Dracula. We were essentially "there" ourselves, witnessing the horror, the terror, and the gore of it through various books, films, and TV shows. We got splashed with the blood and felt the seduction first hand.

But here, under the pleasant California sun and tranquil landscape, and all that darkness far away in another movie/lifetime, it's easy to doubt our memories and wonder: how easy would it be to fool us? Could we have made a mistake? Are we the same as those people in the past who were so certain as they burned witches we now know we're innocent?

The flaws of this movie are that you do need this built in background knowledge of the characters or it's just not going to work. You will be bored and lost and wondering why certain things are big deals and who all these people are.

And while it's fairly well done, it feels like they did a great job using Walmart acrylics, when it could have been a masterpiece in oil grisaille if they'd gotten just slightly better actors/ writers/ directors all around.

A must see for Dracula fans for the very interesting thought experiment, but a pass for everyone else.

Wow. They can even ruin a classic. Ever since movies don't all come out in the theaters, they think it passes as a movie. Every single person involved in this movie should quit. People must have money to burn to turn out this garbage. I guess I should be embarrassed I wasted over a hour of my life on this mess.

I'll start by saying that I really wanted to like this film. The location was gorgeous, the cinematography is fantastic, and the story it's based on is an interesting read. The issue? A really bad script that needed a few more revisions, scenes that played zero role in the story, and some really bad acting from half of the cast.

Dollar store Udo Kier just didn't do anything to help the film, and neither did the younger brother. Every scene involving the two felt like a chore to sit through because the acting was just poor. The mother, despite being from Amsterdam, had a very American accent, so it felt unbelievable even though her acting was up to par. The only good casting here was the older brother and the settler girl, the latter was not given much material to work with either, which was a shame as she played her role to the best of her ability. It didn't help matters that the dialog throughout the film was incredibly stilted, for all parties involved.

Another point to be made is that the film is just boring for the majority of it's runtime. Virtually nothing happens until about the last twenty minutes or so. I understand that it's a slow burn story, but the writer/director should have done something to spruce the story up a bit. For instance, it's the reason why Mike Flanagan is able to pull of Stephen King stories so well, he knows when to take chances and when to be faithful. There is a lot that could have been done with this story, and it all just ends up feeling like one big missed opportunity.

The film also neglects to show even a shred of the brothers believing in Abraham's atrocities once revealed. The brothers never buy into the fact that the man's determinations might be true, therefore making at least 20 minutes of the film null and void. It's one of the reasons why the film Frailty worked so well. In that film, the boys were never quite sure of whether or not their father's supposed mission was real, or if he was just a psycho, making us, the audience, rethink the entire thing ourselves. It's something that you can tell was an inspiration for the storyline, but the writer didn't study that film well enough to understand why it was so compelling and apply it to this story here.

Overall, it can wait until streaming. Yes, the location was a nice view and the cinematography steals the majority of the show, but it's really not worth sitting through in a theater, as it was, for the most part, a bore of a film and not compelling enough to make it an interesting viewing experience.

1.5 Frailty knockoffs out of 5.

Abraham's Boys is a really clever concept for any medium, and it is little wonder it began as a short story by Joe Hill (if it wasn't by him his dad would have taken a crack at something like this at some point); on the surface, it appears to be a "Sequel" to Dracula following Professor Van Helsing living in quiet **very sunny** California but, alas, the undead wont leave him and his young boys and wife Mina Harker alone. What stands out is the perspective and how this is closer to Bill Paxton's Frailty as far as twisted and grisly Father Knows Best pressure cooker where the two boys - one older (looking a lot like a stand-in for Zac Efron 20 years ago) and one younger - have to learn their dad's methods for destroying the cursed vampires... but are they that? Were they ever?

I think the movie means to make it clear that even if at some point there was just *one* blood-sucking Bad Guy Abe Van Helsing has killed innocent people (and the big guy Dracula is only mentioned in a cursory way, like it you say his name he will Beetlejuice into the story, maybe a slight misgiving but got to mention it), and that is what makes this so compelling and terrifying, even as this is not exactly a very scary "horror" so much as a domestic drama with the genre clothing. The film is also shot with a lot of harsh bright light during the day scenes (California and all) and there is this slow burn panic that sets in when we realize this story is not going the way we expected.

The Van Helsing of this story is so severe in fact, and giving TV's Bosch himself Titus Welliver a hell of a strong showcase, that he wouldn't be out of place in a brutal Ingmar Bergman existential tragedy. Once you know the tone that director Natasha Kermani has set and the stakes (hehe) for the kid characters to have in their way, not to mention their poor sick mom, you want to see where this goes next. If there is a downside in terms of execution of the material it's that the actors playing the sons are a little stiff, with Hepner keeping the same look of confusion and consternation while Mackey is just hanging on to get through some of the period-set dialog.

The more I think on the film though the more I respect it as it is a good formal swing, and not just because of the affected aspect ratio (though the black and white for the dream scenes is old hat). It gives a more genuine "what if" kind of twist on a world we all know than like Last Voyage of the Demeter, and if it is less than great it is more thoughtful as a rigorous tale of how some critical thinking skills need to take hold when it comes to parents sometimes (especially but not limited to when they are keeping helpless women locked in the cellar!) 6.5/10.

Admittedly, I'm not big on monster movies, but I've always had an affection for Bram's characters. Unfortunately, this adaptation was very pedestrian. Acted well, but directed and produced poorly. The plot is ok, but the execution of the story is slow and drags out. The ending felt like they ran out of budget. Joe Hill missed the mark on this one imho.